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Poke The Box

The latest book, Poke The Box is a call to action about the initiative you're taking - in your job or in your life, and Seth once again breaks the traditional publishing model by releasing it through The Domino Project.

THE DIP BLOG by Seth Godin

All Marketers Are Liars Blog

Okay, viral, check.

Well, of course it had to happen. The marketing hordes are descending upon the passalong video, without really understanding what they're doing. Check out this stupid Dancing Doughboy. It's sort of like the original dancing baby, but without the panache, the eeriness or the surprising elegance.

What marketers need to understand about most viral videos is that they are like car wrecks. We slow down and shake our heads. We can't believe what we're seeing. Or we are seeing something for the very first time and it's remarkable.

Now, as big brands (like Pillsbury) race the medium to the mainstream, all of that frisson is gone. Sure, some will succeed. Most will just sort of putter along, giving the naysayers at the big brands the chance to say, "see, I told you so," without understanding what went wrong in the first place.

Yes, I get to make my own Doughboy dance. But no, I can't make him do unspeakable things with Betty Crocker.

Chevy is learning this the hard way with their Tahoe campaign... in which the best commercials are the ones that say, "Don't buy me!"

No one invented this medium for marketers. The medium got here before we did.

» Can Viral Kill You? from Servant of Chaos
The problem with bloggers ranting about BAD viral projects is that it helps promote bad creative work. So while I will not be sharing the link to the Dancing Doughboy, I will share with you the link through to Seth [Read More]

» Dancing Doughboy from Polkadotholes
Now, many people are complaining about how bad the new dancing doughboy is from Pillsbury. Of course it's stupid, but what else do you expect from the Pillsbury Doughboy? He's made of dough and has an annoyingly cute face. He's [Read More]

Tracked on April 04, 2006 at 04:21 AM

» Multimedia Marketing Meltdown from The Messaging Times
DIGITAL VIDEO AND AUDIO have been around for a while. I regularly sent .wav audio files in my e-mails to friends with short voice greetings ten years ago. What has changed is that more people are consuming multimedia content because of high-speed acces... [Read More]

Tracked on April 04, 2006 at 06:52 AM

» Multimedia Marketing Meltdown: Part Dough from The Messaging Times
AS I MENTIONED IN MY PREVIOUS POST, there are certainly good marketing applications of multimedia. Seth Godin points us to one of them. Pillsbury uses multimedia wisely in this instance, creating a viral-worthy brand message not because its racy... [Read More]